Tiger In The Abstract
( a 55)
"Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it."
~unknown, attr Mark Twain
Tiger walks a crumbling flow
stippled with blood, scratching scree.
Wind is crying in the dead-branched tree
tears of a fatal innocence
while the lamp of moon burns low.
Soft sharp paws in avalanches
are pacing out his pestilence;
rocks fall like raindrop lances
in fragrant inundations,
dry waves of murder-dances
upon the crushed carnations.
July 2025
posted for Word Garden Word List
Images:Fifty Abstract Paintings..Three Lenins..Head Of Royal Bengal Tiger, 1963, © Salvador Dali Fair Use
Carnations, 1891, © Joaquin Sorolla Fair Use
The inspiration quote is really stunning. As is your poem. As always, it is worth waiting for a poem of yours. I especially love "Wind is crying in the dead-branched tree" and your closing couplet. Wow.
ReplyDeleteThis entire 55 reads like a fist, Hedge. Beginning with that searing (and truthful) quote and continuing with the iterations of the tiger's steps which end in a "murder-dance" (love that!), the whole thing is as solid and inevitable as a spoken truth. Also, while I love the Dali tiger! That's striking indeed and perhaps literally as well.
ReplyDelete"tears of fatal innocence" that is powerful. I can't say anything better than what Shay has said. I so love your writing.
ReplyDeleteThe predator as poet, stalking memory, guilt, instinct. Softness and violence, elegance and ruin. I love the imagery that is a tiger in the shadows - what can’t see but only sense. Foreground and background.
ReplyDeleteprowls like the tiger itself- eerie, graceful, and full of lethal beauty.
ReplyDelete